Neptune & Company

• Internship at Lakewood, CO office
• Consulting firm, founded 1992
  • Environmental Statisics
  • Bayesian decision theory/risk management
• About 50 employees around the US
• Origins with EPA

Overview

• Colorado
• Work at Neptune
• Some Environmental Statistics Topics
• Thoughts on Internships

Mt Bierstadt

Geneva City

A Local

Projects

• Environmental risk assessment
• Mathematical modeling
• Radiological performance assessment
• Unexploded ordnance cleanup
• Sampling plans
• Web-based analysis and visualization tools

A Few Sites

• Hanford Site
• Los Alamos National Lab
• Nevada Test Site
• Helena Valley

My Job – Statistics Intern

• Assist PhD statisticians
  • Analyze/plot data
  • Sampling plans
  • Writups
• Statistical methods paper
• Assist with Visual Sample Plan software
• Input on workflow/project organization

Anatomy of an Environmental Cleanup

• Statistics are just one small piece
• 80-page risk assessment becomes Appendix D of 500-page report
• Reports done in MS Word

Anatomy of an Environmental Cleanup

Anatomy of an Environmental Cleanup

Anatomy of an Environmental Cleanup

Anatomy of an Environmental Cleanup

Anatomy of an Environmental Cleanup

Upper Confidence Limits

Upper Confidence Limits

Upper Confidence Limits

Upper Confidence Limits

Upper Confidence Limits

Non-Detects

A “Real Job”

• More money
• Less work
• Weekends!

A Different Learning Experience

• Expected to know statistics
  • But not “these” statistics
  • Allowed time to learn on the job
• Saw connections between policy and real-world science